Dear Angela

Michele Byers is an associate professor at Saint Mary's University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. David Lavery holds a chair in film and television at Brunel University in London.

Dear Angela includes fourteen critical essays that examine the brief-lived but landmark television series, My So-Called Life (1994-1995). Tackling a broad range of topics_from identity politics, to music, to infidelity, and death_each essay builds upon a belief that My So-Called Life is a particularly rich text worth studying for the clues it offers about a particular moment in cultural and television history.

Part 1 Overtures Chapter 2 Gender/Sexuality/Desire: Subversion of Difference and Construction of Loss in the Adolescent Drama My So-Called Life Chapter 3 Saving Our So-Called Lives: Girl Fandom, Adolescent Subjectivity, and My So-Called Life Part 4 Media Chapter 5 Timing is Everything: The Success of Dawson's Creek and the Failure of My So-Called Life Chapter 6 Their So-Called Scene: Uses of Popular Music in My So-Called Life Part 7 Characters & Themes Chapter 8 My So-Called Queer: Rickie Vasquez and the Performance of Teen Exile Chapter 9 Jordan Catalano/Brian Krakow: Masculinity in the 'Alternative' 90s Chapter 10 Passing Notes and Passing Crushes: Writing Desire and Sexuality in My So-Called Life Chapter 11 Whatever happens happens: Infidelity in My So-Called Life Part 12 Literature Chapter 13 My So-Called Magical Life: Magical Realism Joins the Chase(s) Chapter 14 Holden Caulfield in Doc Martins: The Catcher in the Rye and Part 15 Narrative Chapter 16 One of those Fights Where it Feels like the Fight's Having You: Subjectivity and the My So-Called Life Narrative Chapter 17 "It Only Got Teenage Girls": Narrative Strategies and the Realism of My So-Called Life Part 18 Coda Chapter 19 My So-Called Life in the Balance: Metaphors of Mortality and Uncertainty in a Short-Lived Television Series Part 20 Afterword Chapter 21 My So-Called Life Meets The X-Files: Winnie Holzman's Influence on Joss Whedon